Health aspect in disaster risk assessment

This document is the fifth in a series of special topics for consideration, as part of the Words into Action Guidelines on National Disaster Risk Assessment published by UNISDR. This section focuses on the public health aspect of disaster risk assessment. 

Public health risk assessments are carried out across the different stages of disaster risk management of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, where diverse types of health information are needed to determine evidence-based actions for dealing with natural and man-made hazards, including biological hazards. To ensure comprehensive multi-hazard and multisectoral National Risk Assessment (NRA) for disasters, public health risk assessments should be integrated, including exposure, vulnerability and capacity analyses, as an integrated policy approach. This is aligned with the broad scope of the Sendai Framework, which covers all types of hazards, including biological hazards.